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My family and other animus

For the young James Jeffrey, the day his parents split was like the splitting of the atom. Life took on a seismic instability filled with madness and strain and vendetta and daftness and acts of love, both beautiful and misguided. Yet, what could have been a calamitous upbringing turned instead into an education. For better or worse, his family handed out lessons that would guide him through life, into marriage, and eventually parenthood. My Family and Other Animus is an ode to his family.

For the young James Jeffrey, the day his parents split was like the splitting of the atom. Life took on a seismic instability filled with madness and strain and vendetta and daftness and acts of love, both beautiful and misguided. Yet, what could have been a calamitous upbringing turned instead into an education. For better or worse, his family handed out lessons that would guide him through life, into marriage, and eventually parenthood. My Family and Other Animus is an ode to his family.

“

A gentle, lyrical and funny read that expertly steers between sweetness and sorrow ... this life-affirming book rings with authenticity.”

Leigh Sales

“

This is his offering to readers, and to his beloved children, who are getting “some of that love and magic from even those they barely knew — all part of the great continuum”.”

The Australian

“

It must have taken some courage for James to write so openly about the collateral damage. However brutal the message, we should all be glad he did.”

Caroline Overington

James Jeffrey

James Jeffrey was conceived in Hungary, born in Britain, and raised in Australia. He is the Strewth columnist and parliamentary sketch writer for The Australian. My Family and Other Animus is derived from his popular Home Truths column that ran in The Australian. He lives in Sydney with his wife and two children.

James Jeffrey grew up in the suburbs of Sydney, collecting wildlife including snakes and tree frogs. For a time, he also had a pet shark.
He was eight years old when the marriage between his English father and Hungarian mother imploded spectacularly. James realised things wouldn’t be the same when his mother’s lover’s wife appeared by the swimming pool, wielding a knife.

James was eight when the marriage between his English father Ian and his Hungarian mother Eszter came to a dramatic end. His parents sustained their rage against each other for decades, even after Eszter married again. They met again at the end of Ian's life, as he lay in a nursing home in the last stages of dementia.